10-20 Joules as a neuromolecular quantum in medicinal chemistry: an alternative approach to myriad molecular pathways?

TL;DR: Experimental measurements of photon emissions from cell cultures and the serial steps of phosphorylation in general molecular pathways and transformations in chromophores supported the hypothesis that molecular pathways are simply epiphenomenal transports of quanta with increments in the order of 10(-20) J.

Abstract: The myriads of molecular pathways that have been measured to understand the physical bases of neuronal and other cellular functions have exceeded classical comprehension. In the tradition of Bohr and Schrodinger, the hypothesis is developed that molecular pathways are simply epiphenomenal transports of quanta with increments in the order of 10 -20 J. Experimental measurements of photon emissions from cell cultures and the serial steps of phosphorylation in general molecular pathways and transformations in chromophores supported this contention. This discrete value is also associated with action potentials, intersynaptic events, the biophysical bases of membrane potentials, the numbers of action potentials per cell from magnetic energy potential, and the interionic distances around membranes. Consideration of information as discrete increments of energy may allow greater experimental control and external intervention of pathways relevant to medicinal chemistry. Modern medical and biological sciences have replaced the perspective of the singularity of the whole organism with a matrix of multiple and often dissociated molecular path- ways (1). From either a correlational or reductionist ap- proach to biological systems, the fundamental characteristics and patterns of larger organizations of matter in space-time reflect the smaller forms. The initial enthusiasm for molecu- lar biology proposed by Schrodinger (2) as the quintessential approach to solve the challenges of medicinal biology has been dampened by the accelerating numbers of molecular pathways and the plethora of substitutions in these pathways by which the apparently "same" signalling occurs. In the frenzy to find "the molecular pathway", today's manifesta- tion of Paul Erhlich's "magic bullet", we have forgotten Bohr's (3) suggestion that small amounts of energy involved with quantum theory mediate the features of cell functions. There may be an intrinsic approximal unit of energy by which many if not all molecular pathways relevant to me- dicinal chemistry operate. One of these "quanta", in the order of 10 -20 J, involves a chain of simple transformations of mat- ter and energy across biological space and time. Conse- quently the numbers of multiple pathways and inordinate numbers of molecules involved with signalling are simply carriers or epiphenomena whose presence insures the accu- rate transmission of these digital quanta whose summations of events are reflected at larger and larger levels of organiza- tion. The support for the concept lies within the quantitative convergence with empirical measurements and the internal consistencies of the magnitudes of energy. Although tradi- tions within the last few decades have embraced qualitative perspectives for reviews and developments of concepts, this paper is written to re-kindle the tradition of presenting the precise quantitative reasoning to the reader.